CHICAGO — Jay Cutler insisted he wasn't trying to imitate John Elway when he spun like the blades on a helicopter as he flew across the goal line in the first quarter.

He popped up after that landing, and the Chicago Bears eventually took off too. They weren't about to let a Lions winning streak get off the ground.

Cutler added two touchdown passes to his soaring score, and the Bears pulled away in the second half to beat the Lions 48-24 on Sunday a week after Detroit snapped its 19-game slide.

Cutler's 5-yard run early on sparked images of Elway's highlight-reel run against Green Bay in the Super Bowl, yet he dismissed the comparison to a legendary predecessor in Denver.

"If I could have just dove in there nice and quietly, I would have," Cutler said.

Matt Forte ran for 121 yards, rookie Johnny Knox returned a kickoff 102 yards and Chicago headed into its bye with its third straight win.

The Lions were celebrating a victory over Washington that snapped a slide that matched the second-longest in league history a week earlier. This time, they were holding their breath after watching quarterback Matthew Stafford, the No. 1 draft pick, twist his right knee while being sacked in the fourth quarter.

With a chance to put together consecutive wins for the first time since 2007, the Lions hung in for a half before Chicago (3-1) pulled away.

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Coach Jim Schwartz called it "one of the worst" he's seen. "We were poor on special teams, we were poor on offense, we were poor on defense, we were outcoached, we were outplayed, their trainers were probably better than ours in the second half. So credit goes to them."